My America’s is a thirteen-part series of half-hour documentaries. My Americas series takes viewers on a spiritual and cultural quest through Latin America, guided by one of two young Mexican-American hosts who in each episode experience the people and traditions of a Latin American country through the lens of celebrations such as Corpus Christi in Cusco, Peru; San Lázaro and Babalú Ayé in Cuba; and Yamor in Otavalo, Ecuador. My Americas is a celebration of the wealth of geographic, cultural, and spiritual diversity of Latin America, and it is a search for meaning that examines some of the social issues that local people face in their lives.

Hosts and viewers learn that Latin American culture is a complex and fascinating quilt, woven from a unique mixture of indigenous peoples, Europeans and Africans. The camera follows Roberto and Leticia as they participate in local rituals, celebrations and spiritual expression. They don elaborate outfits, dance to African drums in Cuba and around a sacred fire in Guatemala.

My Americas will expose English-speaking viewers to the lively and deeply spiritual heritage of the fastest-growing population in the United States. My Americas was also funded by Maryknoll Productions and Latino Public Broadcasting. It is distributed to public television stations nationwide by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). NETA is a professional association that serves public television, providing more than 2,000 hours of programming each year to public television stations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS+

PRODUCTION CREDITS

J. Roberto Gutiérrez
Series Producer

J. Roberto Gutiérrez is the vice president for public affairs and communication at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining the Notre Dame staff, Mr. Gutiérrez co-founded the Hispanic Telecommunications Network (HTN) in 1982. The organization produces the weekly, award-winning television series, Nuestra Familia. Mr. Gutiérrez became HTN’s president and CEO in 1985. In his role as executive producer of all HTN’s productions, Mr. Gutiérrez created and produced 1,200 episodes of Nuestra Familia as well as other award-winning projects and feature-length documentaries, seen on UNIVISION, Galavision, PBS and ABC networks.

Gayla Jamison
Supervising Producer and Producer-Writer

Gayla Jamison specializes in social issue and educational documentaries. Since joining HTN in 1997, she has been Supervising Producer and episode Producer-Writer for two series: MY AMERICAS and The Field Afar. She also produced and wrote La Gran Posada, a documentary about the annual Christmas procession in San Antonio.

In addition to her work at HTN, Ms. Jamison has produced short and long form documentaries for Turner Broadcasting, Odyssey Channel, Georgia Public Television, Simon & Schuster, and Channel 13 in Santiago, Chile. Her independently produced documentaries have appeared on The Learning Channel, PBS, WGBH-TV, and ABC network affiliates, as well as broadcast in Germany and the former Soviet Union. Her documentaries have received the Bronze Award, Columbus Film Festival; Special Jury Award, USA Film Festival; Awards of Merit from the Latin American Studies Association; Gold Apple, National Educational Media Network Film Festival; Blue Ribbons from the American Film Festival; Silver Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival; Best Documentary, San Antonio CineFestival; CINE Golden Eagle, and Silver Apple, National Educational Film Festival. Ms. Jamison resides in Atlanta, where she was a founding member and the first director of IMAGE Film and Video Center, a non-profit media arts center.

Rebecca Marvil
Producer-Writer

Following her graduate work in marine geology at Brown University, Rebecca went to work for the Chedd-Angier Production Company in Watertown, MA where she was the associate producer for numerous PBS science programs including NOVA, Frontline, and Race to Save the Planet. In 1990, Rebecca went to WGBH-TV where she worked in National Productions on such acclaimed series as Columbus and the Age of Discovery and Americas.

Over the years, Rebecca has combined interests in film, education and Latin America to make films in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Ecuador and Mexico, lead production workshops in Colombia and spent a semester teaching in Peru as a Fulbright lecturer in 1996. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, in 1992 she made Images of Faith, a documentary about faith and folk art in Puerto Rico. From 1993 to 1995 Rebecca worked in Colombia where she helped design a national environmental education campaign. Rebecca also produced the documentary for the visitor’s center theater at the El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico. Between 1997 and 1998, Rebecca produced documentaries for Discover Magazine, Discovery Channel’s video magazine of current science and technology. At Northern Light Productions in Boston, Rebecca made a series of short documentaries on African American religions for the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibit “African Voices.” In 2000, Rebecca produced the new signature film for Yellowstone National Park. After moving to Houston in 2000, Rebecca worked as a Writer/Producer for Galán Productions Inc. to develop the series Visiones: Latino Art and Culture for PBS.

Rick Tejada-Flores
Producer-Writer

Rick Tejada-Flores produced Rivera in America and Jasper Johns: Ideas in Paint for the PBS series AMERICAN MASTERS and co-produced and directed the PBS primetime specials, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle, and The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It. The Fight in the Fields had the highest PBS viewer ratings ever among Latino households, and the companion book published by Harcourt Brace, website and curriculum continue to be used by thousands. The Good War aired nationally on PBS on Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday in 2002 and went on to win best documentary of 2002 from the Organization of American Historians and the Association of American Historians. Tejada-Flores has produced for the Smithsonian Institute and received the James Phelan Award for Filmmaking.

DVD copies for this program are currently available.
For more information, please visit: www.myamericastv.com

About Us

Latino Public Broadcasting is the leader of the development, production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people, or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. These programs are produced for dissemination to the public broadcasting stations and other public telecommunication entities. LPB provides a voice to the diverse Latino community on public media throughout the United States.